Fitbit Air owners wondering why their tracker couldn't do something their Pixel Watch-owning friends could now have an answer, sort of.
Google has confirmed to Android Authority that sleep breathing quality is coming to the Fitbit Air. The company didn't give a date. But it did make clear the feature isn't being withheld for good, which settles weeks of confusion among people who bought the tracker expecting the full Fitbit health suite.
Sleep breathing quality isn't new. It launched first on the Pixel Watch 3, then rolled out to the Pixel Watch 4 and Pixel Watch 5, measuring how steady a person's breathing is overnight and flagging irregularities that might be worth a doctor's attention. It's the kind of feature Google has leaned on to differentiate its wearables from cheaper fitness bands, so its absence on the Fitbit Air stood out.
That absence is what got people asking questions in the first place. The Fitbit Air sits below Google's Pixel Watch line but still carries the Fitbit name and, presumably, a chunk of the same software. When buyers found the sleep breathing tool missing from their devices, there was no clear word on whether that was a permanent hardware limitation or just a staggered rollout. Google's answer settles that question, at least for the Air: it's coming.
What's still unresolved is the Fitbit Edge, the newer tracker in Google's lineup. Android Authority says availability of sleep breathing quality on the Edge remains unconfirmed, which means Edge owners are now in the same waiting room the Air crowd just stepped out of.
Google hasn't said whether the feature needs a firmware update, an app update, or both, and it hasn't said whether it'll arrive for every Fitbit Air unit at once or trickle out the way some Pixel features do. That ambiguity has become something of a pattern for Google's health features generally, several of which have landed on Pixel Watches first and spread to cheaper or older hardware only after a public nudge.
For now, Fitbit Air owners get confirmation without a calendar. Android Authority says it reached out to Google specifically to get clarity after the feature's absence drew notice, and the response it got back was enough to put the Air back on the list of supported devices, even if the actual update is still somewhere down the pipeline.
What happens next is on Google. A rollout date, whenever it lands, will also likely answer the lingering question about the Fitbit Edge.
GDFiled by The Gadgets Desk
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